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Game Master
Game Master, God, The Almighty, His Extreme Sexiness, or GM (All Hail God Aycinth) is the real world entity that controls all the NPC factions and any random occurrences such as weather within Broland. Player character factions interact with God (AHGA) first and foremost, and other player characters only indirectly, through Him. This places a slight limiting constraint upon playtime, as player characters may only take actions while God (AHGA) is on Facebook, not busy, and generally inclined towards updating your game. God (AHGA) also has a sense of humour, so it’s generally a good idea to stay on His good side. General Guidelines There are, of course, a few things that one can do to ensure God’s (AHGA) continued favour, and a few things that will get you on His bad side. In general, it’s a good idea to play the game, be creative (He loves that sort of thing), and not argue. 0. The 0th Law of Roleplaying applies here: what God (AHGA) says, goes. If He says something happens, then it does. It doesn’t matter if it’s pretty obvious he’s done something unfair without even rolling the dice. God’s (AHGA) word is final, so no whining. 1. Don’t do anything you aren’t allowed to do. Player factions control their own faction, and nothing else. Player characters are allowed to dictate any action any member of their faction will take to God (AHGA). Player characters are not allowed to dictate outside events. For example: Say a UF airship encounters Easter Island. The player character directing events is not allowed to: a. Control the weather. This seems pretty obvious, until you realize just who is in charge of flavour text. So, no posting “The sun shines bright over Easter Island as one of Her Majesty’s airships floats majestically overhead. A light breeze ruffles the Union Rodger upon her mast…” b. Dictate events. This one is a bit less obvious, though it still ought to be obvious to seasoned role players. Basically, you can’t write things like “the head of the natives greets my ship, bearing an offering of flowers and fruit…” c. Have any objects or capabilities that God (AHGA) doesn’t know about. This is sort of the big one, since it’s a lot of fun to keep various titbits to oneself, only to unveil them for maximum effect later. However, as God (AHGA) is more or less the universe itself, nothing exists that He does not know about. Basically, you have no wave motion gun unless you clear it with God (AHGA) first. So, you ask, what ARE you allowed to do? I mean, what’s the point of all this if I’m not allowed to do anything? There are a lot of allowed actions, ranging from the mundane to the truly bizarre. Actions in Broland are limited by physical constraints, as with real life, by authoritative constraints, as in real life (you aren’t allowed to order a drone strike in real life because you don’t have that authority), and by creativity. For example, a UF ship descends upon Easter Island, and so God (AHGA) begins the Easter Island thread. He explains to you that the weather is clear and bright (since it’s his job, not yours) and delivers a bit of flavour text. At this point you have a number of options open to you. You can do an aerial flyover, to see if there are indeed natives. You can take photographs whilst flying over, assuming you have the technological prerequisites. You can send explorers. You can take pictures of the explorers. You can crash into the island (hey, I mean, whatever you want, dude.) So, you send the explorers. God (AHGA) informs you that there are, in fact, natives, though they do not bring you fruit and flowers; they are mostly ambivalent toward you. Again, you have several choices. You could befriend them, trade with them, burn their village and rape their women (taking aerial photographs all the while), firebomb their village, nuke their village, nuke the pictures you took of your explorers raping their women, dance naked on the deck, fart in their general directions… Assuming that you have the technological prerequisites for all of those actions, of course. If you haven’t got nukes, or you do, but didn’t inform God (AHGA) that you were bringing them (unless you happen to have a habit of toting nukes around in your ship – you’d have to inform God (AHGA) of this beforehand, though) then the nuclear option simply is not available to you. It is, of course, a massive amount of fun to ‘keep things in the wings’, as it were, so that you can play your more interesting cards and watch the GM (AHGA) say ‘whoa, cool’. Given the relationship of GM (AHGA) to PC, this for the most part is not possible. That said, it is technically possible to keep things from God (AHGA) that one wishes to unveil later. One merely has to understand the rules surrounding this; anything tangible is right out; this includes weapons, bits of technology, maps, gold (though gold in Broland works a bit like Rogue Trader in that there’s never an actual accounting), vehicles, cities, and the like. This also includes NPCs with anything better than standard NPC stats, though you are free to keep Chuck Norris in the wings, only to whip him out later on. Just know that he won’t be any more awesome than John Everyman, standing right next to him. Anyways, that was a long speech, so on to… 2. Be creative. God (AHGA) gets as much a kick as you do out of brilliant new ideas. 3. Follow the adventure hooks. God (AHGA) frequently has to work very hard to prepare new areas and events based on his most accurate prediction of your next moves. He’s even been known to ask what the plan is regarding the next few months of Broland time. Given all that work, it’s a bit rude to simply ignore blatant plot hooks, especially if they’re based on your feedback. 4. Go out there and do things! It’s boring, just sitting in your Fortress of Doom and hiding from the big bad world. Go, interact with other people, make a few diplomatic incidents, and sell crack to the New Javans. That’s how you gain power and influence, and it’s entertaining as hell. 5. Most importantly, have fun. It’s just a game. Either way, you are now head of your very own faction! You have hundreds of soldiers at your command! Go out there and do whatever your heart desires. If you play by the rules, then everyone is happy. Incurring God's (AHGA) Wrath There are, of course, occasions where a PC has incurred the Almighty’s wrath. Mostly, this happens if one fails to follow the above guidelines. There are two main flavours of Wrath: The first is frustration. This is the most common, and the least devastating. Frustration results from a PC who refuses to follow some of the more minor guidelines above. For example, a PC who hides out in their base and refuses to leave would incur mild Frustration. Frustration’s most important effect is a drastic drop in update rates, as God (AHGA) is less inclined to work with a Frustrating PC. This is actually much worse than it seems, as while the Frustrating PC is wallowing in stasis-time due to a lack of updates, the other PCs are consolidating power. Depending on the PC, the amount of inconvenience may vary. The second flavour is Ire. Ire is rather more serious than Frustration, and unlucky PCs may incur God’s (AHGA) Ire by either breaking a major rule, or by being a general dick about things. In general, Ire is reserved for PCs who break the 0th law. For example, a PC who pulls important loot out of his a$$, and (this is the important bit) refuses to stand down when God (AHGA) confronts him about this has earned a measure of God’s (AHGA) Ire. Yes, it is entirely possible to get your way through sheer stubbornness. It’s also a very stupid move. Ire causes the universe itself to conspire against you. For example, if one happens across OOC knowledge of the location of some uranium mines, and tries to integrate this into Broland, God (AHGA) will argue with you, and point out that the uranium is likely all gone by now. If you argue with Him, or head toward the mines anyways, God (AHGA) will allow it. He may even decide that the uranium is still there. However, it’s a sure bet that something nasty is waiting in the mines, or that radiation-scarred uranium zombies infest the area. Proceed at your own risk. Appeasing God (AHGA) It is possible, though difficult, to get rid of Ire. Apologizing sometimes helps, though it may be prudent to simply abort the mission, or to obtain the location of the uranium (for example) through legitimate in-game means. Frustration is much more easily dealt with. Simply begin following the rules as laid out, and God (AHGA will likely begin updating you once more.